1.Health authorities have attributed causes of three major chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes, to three major factors: poor diet, a paucity of exercise and acute stress. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes cause 70 percent, of all deaths in the United States each year, or a staggering 1.7 million annually. In addition, these diseases hamper daily lifestyles in 1 out of every 10 Americans each year.

2.Despite the fact that chronic diseases are widespread and malicious, they are also among the easiest to prevent. Adopting lifestyle changes and adhering to them over time can significantly curtail or prevent the occurrence of chronic disease. These lifestyle accommodations include consuming health food, increasing physical activity and avoiding tobacco. Prevention of the debilitating effects of chronic disease is possible with such adjustments in daily life.

1. ...authorities have attributed causes… (paragraph 1)

2. …a paucity of exercise…. (paragraph 1)

3.    ……acute stress… (paragraph 1)

4. …chronic disease…(paragraph 1)

5. ...adhering to them…(paragraph 2)

(5) Just as polio is a disease that confronted societies worldwide in the early twentieth century, obesity is a modern disease inflicting both young and old in the twenty-first century. The causes of obesity are known: lack of exercise, poor diet and genetic predisposition. Yet, despite our knowledge of these causes, many of us who live in an affluent society have done very little to abate this spiraling epidemic.


(10) Many authorities advocate controlling our diet as a cure for obesity. They claim that we should abandon all snacks, primarily those containing harmful sugar and saturated fat. They are adamant about abandoning) deleterious drinks as well, including sodas and certain fruit juices which are latent with sugar.


(15) Finally, a number of medical authorities admonish us to become more active. They find our unwillingness to exercise abstruse and inexplicable. They say that there is inexhaustible evidence suggesting that obesity and other diseases could be prevented by simple physical activity, such as walking, cleaning house, washing the car or mowing the lawn.

6. The word “affluent” in line 5 is closest in meaning to______________.

7. A word in lines 5-6 that means “lessen” is________________.

8. The word “advocate” in line 7 has a similar meaning as________________.

9. The word “abandon” in line 8 is similar in meaning to _______________.

10. A word in lines 9-10 that has a similar meaning as “unyielding”

11. A word that means “ to warn” in lines 12-13 is_______________.

12. The word “abstruse” in line 13 most nearly means______________.